Andrea Ousmane, aged nine, is busy boiling unpeeled beans in a dish on a makeshift hearth in the middle of a millet farm. He looks frail and famished while his filthy attire betrayed his rear. As he battles with the flames to make sure his meal gets ready early enough, his brother, Isaac Ousmane, appears with millet stalks.
Isaac, aged 11, shares the stalks of some plant with his brother and they eat, perhaps to keep enzymes busy while waiting for their “pleasant” unpeeled beans meal to get ready. Both took to their heels when I cleared my throat about 50 metres away. It took about an hour for them to be convinced that I was harmless. At first, both lied that their names were Touma Emmanuel and David Bouba.
The time is 9.43am on Tuesday September 30 and the setting is Limani, a small village at the heart of the Sahara Desert in the Far North Region of Cameroon, close to the border with Nigeria.
Limani is one of the villages occupied by the Islamic Militant group, Boko Haram. Intensified threats from children, aged between seven and 11, hired and trained by the terrorist group have sent thousands fleeing from Limani, Amchide, Kerawa and other neighbouring villages found along the border with Nigeria.
These two children, without shelter, live in total fear and trauma as a result of the violent activities of the terrorists. Thousands of others continue to suffer the same fate across the zone in northern Cameroon.
Their parents have either fled for safety abandoning them behind or were killed by the insurgents, leaving them at the mercy of the cold, dry harmattan that lashes northern Cameroon at this time of the year as it blows westwards from the Sahara.
“The people are running away because of fear. Most of these children survive by the grace of God because the terrorists either kill or take them away. Some are raped or exposed to various forms of sexual violence. There is even the cruelty of nature here in the bush,” said a Cameroonian military official who preferred not to be named. “Kerawa and Amchide are still controlled by the Boko Haram,” he disclosed.
Sources say the terrorists take advantage of abandoned kids and recruit them. “Some of these kids are recruited by Boko Haram and trained together with other children from Islamic schools in the villages” said an ICT expert, Mahama Maragana, who works at a Telecommunications Community Centre in Amchide.
Maragana said he ran away with his wife and five children to Mora, a distant town from the border, but still returns to Amchide occasionally with the help of security forces to maintain equipment.
“Many people in these localities are poor. The terrorists give children money and encourage them to join the group. Children who are not willing to compromise are killed,” lamented Maragana. Andrea and Isaac said they miss the comfort of being with their parents but do not know where to find them.
“I’m very frightened. They carry guns and veil themselves like women” said Isaac. His younger brother cries sometimes saying he wants to see mama, Isaac narrated.
“Children, some of whom are unaccompanied, battle with starvation, diseases and attacks on their way to Mora as they flee from the ongoing violence along the borders. Some are displaced Cameroonians from the villages near the border while some are Nigerian refugees” an International Red Cross Volunteer Official, Michel Koumey, told this reporter.
Koumey registers and takes care of refugees gathered in a makeshift camp at the stadium in Mora. He said children suffer more because the refugees are given food only once a day. According to him, they have no medical attention and three cases of poliomyelitis were recorded, late September. “I vaccinated all of them from the youngest to oldest, myself, when we discovered it” Koumey went on.
A number of children arriving from the crisis zone are on the brink of death with severe malnutrition and health complications. Four teenage refugee mothers gave birth at the improvised camp in Mora, including one who had her baby in the market upon arrival, said officials of the Red Cross.
In the camp, refugees told stories of children who had lost their parents and mothers who had witnessed brutal killing of their spouses and family members. Others recounted how they lost their children in the river during their long and painful journey to Cameroon.
Many children, including the teenage mothers, have been traumatised by the horrors of extreme violence.
According to statistics by the Health District Officer, Dr Togue, Mora has six health Centres, one clinic and only four doctors for an overall population of 182,000 inhabitants. The inflow of 10,000 displaced persons and refugees from the border villages and Nigeria has added to this number of people, making it difficult to access health care in Mora.
Humanitarian agencies responding to crisis have not shown up for assistance. The only humanitarian agency responding to the refugee situation in the Mayo–Sava Division, is the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
Although the current situation requires urgent response, the agency is facing scarcity of resources even as the number of refugees continues to grow.
“The United Nations people were here the other day to register us and they told us that as soon as they finish transporting other refugees in Kousseri, they will come and take us. We are still waiting for the transporters,” said one of the refugees in Mora, Moudu Umar.
Red Cross officials said that that particular group of refugees started arriving Mora on September 17, shortly after 2,000 others were evacuated and, two weeks later, it was still difficult to evacuate them to the camps in Mokolo because the UN agency did not have sufficient resources to do so.
“They may be here for another one to two months because there are still more than 7,000 refugees in Kousseri and we do not have enough vehicles. Some of those trucks we use are hired,” a UNHCR official told this reporter.
To remedy the situation, administrative authorities have created a committee known as “Committee for the Management of Displaced Persons,” which includes health officials.
However, scarcity of resources has hindered the committee’s efforts to handle the situation. This has made it impossible for the committee to conduct a census of persons displaced from Cameroonian villages in the conflict zones into Mora.
“President Paul Biya offered 100 bags of rice and the Speaker of the National Assembly gave bags of millet but you know those things are eaten with a complement and we need money to get that. People in the communities have been very supportive,” said the Senior Divisional Officer, Babila Akaou.
Authorities in the area have called on humanitarian organisations to come to the aid of the displaced and refugees, while Red Cross officials recommended that the refugees in Mora be evacuated. They also request that nurses and pharmacies be made available for them.
